Simi Man Held in Attack on John Wayne’s Daughter

Newport Beach police said Saturday they have arrested a Simi Valley man in the attack in October on Aissa Wayne, daughter of actor John Wayne, and her companion, financier Roger Luby.

Police identified the suspect as Jeffrey Kendall Bouey, 35, a swimming pool cleaner.

Christopher J. Evans, the deputy district attorney assigned to the case, said Wayne and Luby have identified Bouey as one of two men who bound, beat and threatened to kill them after they drove onto Luby’s $3-million Newport Beach estate on Oct. 3.

Evans has described the attack as a “contract assault” that was “cold, deliberate, premeditated.”

Bouey, arrested Friday night outside his home in Simi Valley, was being held in Newport Beach City Jail. Harbor Municipal Court Judge Russell A. Bostrom set Bouey’s bail at $1 million.

Police described Bouey as a friend of Jerrel L. Hintergardt, 37, of Burbank, whom they arrested March 17 on suspicion of being one of the attackers. He is in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1-million bail. Both Hintergardt and Bouey are being held on suspicion of conspiracy and assault with a deadly weapon.

According to police, Hintergardt is a former employee of private investigator O. Daniel Gal of Los Angeles, for whom an arrest warrant was issued two weeks ago as part of the Wayne-Luby investigation. Gal’s agency had been hired by Aissa Wayne’s former husband, Thomas A. Gionis of Pomona, an orthopedic surgeon, as part of a bitter fight over custody of the couple’s 2-year-old daughter Anastasia. Gionis won custody in January.

Police allege that Gionis paid Gal $40,000 during a two-week period a month before the attack on Wayne and Luby.

Police said Gal is in Europe, where he went after being interviewed by investigators. Gionis could not be reached for comment.

The attack occurred in daylight after Wayne, 32, and Luby, 52, had driven through the electrically controlled gate to Luby’s home.

Two men appearing to be construction workers walked through the open gate to the nearby garage and called out Luby’s name. When Luby acknowledged his name, one man struck him in the head with a pistol, knocking him to the garage floor. The other man pushed Wayne to the garage floor and banged her head against the pavement.

The attackers bound both victims, and one slashed the Achilles tendon in Luby’s right leg and tried to slash the other as well.

One of the men told Wayne that he was messing “with the wrong people. If you screw up again, you’re dead.” Then they left.

Police say several witnesses saw the men at the scene of the attack and saw Gal parked nearby.

Lt. Tim Newman said investigators learned the identity of the second suspect Friday afternoon and asked Simi Valley police to watch Bouey’s home. At 6:55 p.m. Friday, officers arrested Bouey as he started to drive off. He did not resist arrest, officers said.